October 7, 2000
Honigman Auditorium, 100 Hutchins Hall
University of Michigan Law School

8:30 - 9:00 a.m.

Welcome
and Opening Remarks

Jacqueline
E. Lawson
Peggie J. Hollingsworth
Lee C. Bollinger

9:00 - 10:00 a.m.

Keynote
AddressFreedom: The Seamless Web

Anthony
Lewis

10:00 - 10:15 a.m.

Break

10:15 - 11:45 a.m.

Panel
1 - Silencing Voices

Ellen
W. Schrecker
Nadine Strossen
Roger W. Wilkins

12:00 noon

Break
for lunch

1:30 - 3:00 p.m.

Panel
2 - Scientific Evidence:Junk or Cutting Edge Science

Barry
J. Nace
Rosalind Reid
Joseph Sanders

3:00 - 3:15 p.m.

Break

3:15 - 4:45 p.m..

Panel
3 - Constructive Dialogueson Thorny Issues

Edward
M. Gramlich
Robert M. O'Neil
Eugene L. Roberts, Jr.

4:45 - 5:00 p.m.

Discussion
and Closing Comments

Brief
Description of Panels:

Panel
1 - "Silencing Voices

"

In
recent years there has been much talk about "PC" or "political
correctness" on university campuses, in the media, and among the public
generally.Many persons have
charged that certain difficult and sensitive questions concerning race, gender,
and the like have effectively been placed off limits from open discussion, or at
least that certain controversial positions can no longer be voiced in academic
settings or other respectable circles. At the same time, others are deeply
concerned that particular groups, especially women and racial or ethnic
minorities, have been severely disadvantaged at school and in the workplace by
the hostility expressed, subtly or not so subtly, by teachers, employers, fellow
students, and co-workers. Speech codes and anti-harassment rules have been
fashioned in an effort to combat these affronts or supposed affronts.How can the various institutions of society strike a fair balance in
dealing with these problems? How can we have “uninhibited, robust, and
wide-open” debate of important questions without unnecessarily wounding or
impeding the academic or workplace progress of vulnerable members of the
community?How can we make all feel
welcome and participative without stilling strongly dissenting voices?Or can voices properly be quieted without being stilled?

Panel
Two: "Scientific Evidence: Junk or Cutting Edge Science?"

Scientists
have become increasingly concerned about the possible abuses of so-called
"junk science" – the treatment in the popular press and in litigation of
dubious scientific findings.In its
recent decision in Kumho Tire Co. v.
Carmichael, 119 S.Ct. 1167 (1999), the U.S. Supreme Court imposed a
"gate
keeping" obligation on trial judges to ensure that all expert testimony is
relevant and reliable, meeting "the same level of intellectual rigor that
characterizes the practice of an expert in the relevant field."What exactly does that ruling mean? Does it impose a necessary and
feasible standard for barring the introduction of misleading "junk science"?Or does such a test inappropriately hamstring claimants and lawyers
trying to establish liability for wrongdoing in unprecedented situations?What if any are the ramifications of this approach beyond the courtroom?How, for instance, might it affect peer review of articles submitted for
publication in scientific journals?

Panel Three: "Constructive Dialogues on Thorny
Issues"

At
present there is a worrisome lack of reasoned public dialogue about critical
issues of race, gender, crime, poverty, bioethics, the environment, and the
like. Strident voices too often just speak past one another in dealing with all
these topics. How does one balance the right of free speech on such sensitive
subjects against the need for more responsible speech? An in-depth look at how
these questions should be approached (that is, the format for addressing them – not, of course, how they should be
resolved) would be of inestimable value to our society. In short, we seek an
intensive discussion of a matrix that
any group or institution could use in coming to grips with the most
controversial and persistent issues of our times.

Brief
Description of Speakers:

Edward Gramlich
is a Governor of the Federal Reserve System and a former Professor of Economics
and Public Policy and Dean of the School of Public Policy at the University of
Michigan.

Anthony Lewis is a
columnist for The New York Times, a recipient twice of the
Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting, and the James Madison Visiting Professor
of First Amendment Issues at Columbia University.

Barry Nace is Senior
Partner in Paulson & Nace, Washington, D.C., former President of Trial
Lawyers of America, and an author of numerous publications.His major areas of practice are medical malpractice, drug product
liability, and trial and appellate practice.

Robert O'Neil is the
Founding Director of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free
Expression and a former President of the University of Virginia and of the
University of Wisconsin.Among his
books is Free Speech: Responsible Communication Under Law.

Rosalind Reid is
Editor of American Scientist, the journal of Sigma Xi, The
Scientific Research Society, and a member of the Advisory Board of Dragonfly,
the National Science Foundation journal for young investigators.

Eugene Roberts is
a Professor of Journalism at the University of Maryland at College Park, a
former Managing Editor of The New York Times, and a former
Executive Editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Joseph Sanders is
the A. A. White Professor of Law at the University of Houston Law Center where
he teaches Law and Social Science, Products Liability: Scientific Evidence, and
Torts.He is the author of numerous
books and articles on these subjects.

Ellen Schrecker
is Professor of American History at Yeshiva University, editor of Academe,
the journal of the American Association of University Professors, and author of No
Ivory Tower:McCarthyism and the Universities and other
books about the McCarthy era.

Nadine Strossen
is Professor of Law at New York Law School, President of the American Civil
Liberties Union, and author of Defending Pornography.

Roger Wilkins is
the Clarence J. Robinson Professor of History and American Culture at George
Mason University, a former U.S. Assistant Attorney General, a journalist, and
recipient of a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting.